


Rows With Chip-and-PIN Machines

by belovedmuerto



Series: An Experiment in Empathy [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, psychic!john
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-28
Updated: 2011-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 20:23:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/229397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belovedmuerto/pseuds/belovedmuerto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a reason John gets into rows with chip-and-PIN machines.</p><p>(As far as the series goes, this is a sort of prequel, but it is the story that gave me the idea for the whole thing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rows With Chip-and-PIN Machines

**Author's Note:**

> Just a wee ficlet, originally posted on mah tumblr. I love this version of John. It's tied to a larger AU fic I'm currently working on.

There’s a reason John Watson gets into rows with chip-and-PIN machines.

It’s not that they don’t like him, really. It’s that they soak up so much from every person who touches them. Every fingerprint carries a little bit of its owner, a little bit of their life and whatever mood they’d been in while doing their shopping. And John has a tendency to, in his turn, soak all those bits up from the machines. It’s not that he wants to, because he doesn’t. He hates it, but you can’t build mental walls against machines. 

He knows. He’s tried.

Electronics are funny creatures, though. They don’t have feelings, but they certainly seem to resent when he steals all those little bits of all the people who’ve used them before him; they go wonky.

If John took the time to think about it, he’d likely come to the conclusion that there’s some sort of electromagnetic something or other science-y (and wouldn’t that make Sherlock wince and launch into a three hour lecture) that would explain why they all go wonky on him when he touches them, but that would require he not yell at the programmed voice and keep his cool about it going wonky. Again. Every time.

John gets mad at chip-and-PIN machines much more easily than he gets mad at anything or anyone else. Including his sister.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Rows With Chip-and-PIN Machines podfic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/554727) by [OtterPods (LapOtter)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapOtter/pseuds/OtterPods)
  * [Empath!John for Belovedmuerto](https://archiveofourown.org/works/737301) by [moonblossom graphics (moonblossom)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonblossom/pseuds/moonblossom%20graphics)




End file.
